Frick Art Reference Library

Frick Art Reference Library
Location within New York City
Established 1920
Location 10 East 71st Street
New York, NY 10021 (United States)
Coordinates 40°46′16″N 73°58′02″W / 40.771181°N 73.967350°WCoordinates: 40°46′16″N 73°58′02″W / 40.771181°N 73.967350°W
Type Library
Director Stephen J. Bury (Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian)
Website http://www.frick.org/research/library

The Frick Art Reference Library is a research institution affiliated with The Frick Collection. It is located at 10 East 71st Street (between Madison and Fifth Avenue) in New York City. The Library is housed in a six-story building designed by the architect John Russell Pope.[1]

History

Helen Clay Frick founded the Frick Art Reference Library in 1920 as a memorial to her father Henry Clay Frick, who died in 1919. Its first home was the bowling alley of the Frick residence, which is now the The Frick Collection. In 1924, the Library moved from the bowling alley to a one-story building at 6 East 71st Street designed by the architecture firm Carrère and Hastings. The Library opened to the public in its current building on January 14, 1935.

Mission

The Frick Art Reference Library is open to adults (18 or older) with an interest in art, including scholars, art professionals, students, and collectors. In addition, it serves the greater art and art history research community through its membership in the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC), which also includes the libraries of the Brooklyn Museum and The Museum of Modern Art. The Library established the Center for the History of Collecting in 2007. The Center supports the study of the formation of collections of fine and decorative arts, both public and private, from Colonial times to the present through its fellowships, symposia, and publications.

Collections

The collections held at the Frick Art Reference Library focus on art of the Western tradition from the fourth century (A.D.) to the mid twentieth century (A.D.), and chiefly include information about paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and illuminated manuscripts. Archival materials augment its research collections. The Library holds more than 228,000 monograph and 3,300 periodical titles.

Highlights

List of Chief Librarians

There have been seven Chief Librarians (known as the Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian since 1992) of the Frick Art Reference Library:

References

  1. ↑ Gray, Christopher (October 15, 2000). "Streetscapes/The Frick Art Reference Library; A Memorial Built by a Daughter for Her Father". New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2011.

External links